Copeland Parian Ware Bust 'Miranda' c.1862 Sculpted by William Calder Marshall

Height: 28cm (11inches)

Designed as a woman dressed in a gown with Celtic clasps and a hairband of seaweed all upon socle base. 

The back of the bust is marked with the name 'MIRANDA' and 'W C MARSHALL SCULPTOR' and 'COPELAND'. These socle base is marked 'Crystal Palace Art Union'.

Miranda was the daughter of Prospero from Shakespeare's The Tempest and was banished to the island along with her father at the age of three. She is openly compassionate and unaware of the evils of the world that surround her. The name comes from Latin, meaning 'worthy of admiration'. 

For more information William Calder Marshall see 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calder_Marshall

The Crystal Palace Art-Union was founded by Henry Battam of Copeland's in Staffordshire, England in 1858. Its special purpose 'was to produce and circulate pure and beautiful examples of British Art Manufacture.’ In 1865 it was renamed the Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art-Union. Raffaelle Monti (1818–1881) was an Italian sculptor, author and poet born in Milan who was trained by his father, the noted sculptor Gaetano Matteo Monti. He was invited to Vienna for 2 years while aged only 20 and in 1846 travelled to England for a year, but later settled there. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, and soon earned recognition as a leading sculptor with his piece for the 6th Duke of Devonshire, the "Veiled Vestal" a figure with an illusionistic veil, a specialism of his. A bust based on this work, cast in Parian porcelain by Copeland titled "The Bride", but often known as "The Veiled Bride", became one of the most popular Parian busts ever produced.

For further reading on Parian Ware see 'The Parian Phenomenon, A survey of Victorian Parian Porcelain Statuary & Busts' ISBN0 903685 22 1